George Orwell and the State of the World

In the beginning I was thinking on writing a composition based on a scientific topic. I thought that was fine to choose any topic and write about it, because you can read, for instance, a biology book of octopus reproduction and then you tell how it works. Maybe I really do not care as much as I thought about their reproduction, but it could be nice to know something new. After all, I changed my mind. I realised that the world is not working very well, and it’s not the octopus fault. So here, there are a few words that connect the George Orwell “predictions” in the beginning of the XXth. century and the real world.

Let’s start for the beginning. George Orwell is an invented name by Sir Eric Arthur Blair. He was born in India in 1903 and he died 47 years later in London. He lived in India ‘till he left the Imperial Army in Burma. He moved to London in 1927. He started to introduce himself in a different kind of life. He lived as a Homeless in Paris and we can check the experience in Down and Out in Paris and London. He had also war experience in Spain, and he wrote Homage to Catalonia. He checked and studied the politician power when he was living again in London, and we can have a look at those studies in Animal Farm (a satirical critique of the communist government of Stalin in URSS) or 1984 (which introduces the Big Brother term). 1984, a book which gives sense to our days.

In that last book, Orwell made a composition of that world he had imagined for his coming future. Actually he was not wrong at all. He predicted a world in a social system controlled by a political and economical power. To control the citizens, the power has to manage to put the population out of reason and with no voice. How to do it? And how the World “Emperor” (Bush) and his mariachis (Blair, Berlusconi and specially Aznar) have followed to give a sense to a non-sense war (I should say that the reason was, obviously, a lobby of oil)?

Let’s compare two easy ways: In 1984 the “government” creates an enemy. The same did US associated with the neo-catholic-liberal-Europe. This enemy is a very big danger for the Empire. When the population believes that this danger exists and trusts them… It’s time to attack! In the book we can find a no-end war, so the power manages for being in war and victory constantly. Furthermore, the power (in both cases) needs to control the Media. And they did it. For instance, in Spain, Aznar controls the media. Let’s see it: He (and his non-program party) has the control of RTVE broadcast, which has 2 channels. There’s Antena 3, which is controlled by Sogecable (It belongs to Telefonica, and it belongs to Aznar’s best friend). TV5 is controlled by a business-society of shareholders, and 51% of it belongs to Berlusconi (il signorino). Isn’t this a control of Media?

Therefore, I have put some common points of that book and the actual world. We realise that probably in a few decades we will be controlled at all by a type of big brother. Or the Special-“unintelligence” Spanish corps did not start last week by following and spying a totally democratic and constitutional party? So, finally, and for sure, regular and single citizens are next, like Orwell said: “it’ll be like a boat treading your face for ever (…)”.